Horseman
“Robin along with Emmett were the only horsemen I ever knew and will know … those two were, are and will always be the real deal … last true horsemen.” — Jack Craddock.
last ride
A red-tailed hawk is near like a partner. Robin is standing by the well with Cicatriz. He’s waiting for her to drink deeply from the well. The saddle he made --- the old-style roping saddle with the stamping that looks like a basket weave is on her back. He checks the cinches before he steps into the stirrup and throws his leg over and settles back in for the rest of the ride. In the distance he sees a herd of horses making time across the prairie where quail and prairie chickens hurry to find cover. The moon rises lighting the field for the hawk. It will be five hours before he and Cicatriz meet the long line of men in cowboy hats that have gone before him on this road.
—Connie Doughman
Above / Robin on the bridge on Cicatriz / Photo Rush Cole
Robin is described as legendary in his communication with horses and the healing process in people, although he never saw himself that way. He worked with all horses, but Spanish Mustangs had his heart. He gave private lessons to a long line of students for over thirty years. He conducted training clinics and led the Youth Clinics with the Spanish Mustang Foundation, trained wild ponies just off the range of the Brislawn’s Cayuse Ranch in Wyoming, and foals from the Galisteo Preserve for Spanish Mustangs. He taught his students about the gentle kindness in understanding the soul of horses and how to live with an open heart and soul. He was as subtle and powerful as the wind, a man of few words that spoke of deeper truth than we hear in most human beings. We can envision this noble and gentle man frolicking with the horses and being held in the warmth and grace of the supreme vessel that is the almighty being, nature. Robin will take his place among the Angels and continue to whisper to those human and animal beings that can hear his voice.
—Connie Doughman, Linda Seagraves, and Laura Ellis
Robin and Yaqui / Photo Deborah Samuel
“Conjure up images of the old west and more often than not, those images will include several or more visions of horses running free over endless prairie. Rarely would the vision be one horse.”
—Robin Doughman
Photo Sierra Perkins
“The Native Americans of those times lived with their horses and worked with their horses and they became each other. They lived as horse nations. They became legendary.”
—Robin Doughman
Robin on Cicatriz in Rock Ridge Corral / Photo Rush Cole
“Planning a trip to Emmett’s. This will change my life just like the ranch has done. I hope I’m ready. No, I know I’m ready for the experience. I know I have the knowledge. Emmett has the wisdom. Emmett has what I want. I’ve wanted it since I was a kid; Emmett’s had it since he was a kid. A way with horses. Not a way to train them but a way to be alive with them. A way to understand them on a personal level. But don’t ask me about this, ask the horses. They will tell you that Emmett knows. Because of Emmett, now I want to know. I want my horses to know that I know, and I want my horses to believe that I’m good.”
I keep going back to the videos I’ve been watching the last few days. Videos of Emmett made by other people. He’s doing a little riding, a little training, some philosophizing on the side. I’m sure, at his age, he’d say his easy moving days are over, but in a corral, he just flows to the rhythm of the horse. Always easy, always sure and confident. Putting pressure but never pushing. Always offering a way for the horse to succeed. It’s all right there, everything Emmett does is right there on the surface, in the present. Even on the video you can see his eyes picking up every little thing. So focused on what’s taking place in front of him. Tom Dorrance couldn’t have described it better than “true horsemanship through feel.” And Buck Brannaman when he says, “When you and your horse get to that it will change your relationship forever.”
Keep in mind, this is not about horse training, it’s about a way of life. Horses don’t need to be trained. They do just fine without our help. But if we are going to assume a position of responsibility with them, it seems to me that it is our responsibility to learn to communicate with them in a proper way. A way they understand. We are the intelligent ones after all. Aren’t we!
—Robin Doughman
Robins handmade saddle he helped build / Photo Connie Doughman
Robin and I worked with many Spanish Mustangs during our friendship. Some were my horses; some were rescues. We taught them all Robin’s seven steps of ground work. When The Spanish Mustang Foundation was formed in 2004 we began working with children. The most fun and rewarding in my time with Robin was working with kids to teach them about Spanish Mustangs and ground work. Robin was always so kind, patient and supportive working with children. I believe Robin really offered his knowledge and skills to those kids and made a difference in their lives.
—Donna Mitchell, SMF Secretary
Photo Sierra Perkins
“It’s not how much you know, it’s how much you care.“ Robin taught me this when working with our Mustangs! Big reason he was so successful with horses and people!
—Doug Lanham, SMF President
Photo Sierra Perkins
I give thanks to the legendary Robin Doughman. A man of few words but a universe inside his heart in understanding Mustangs. Robin was one of my most inspiring teachers. He taught me about grace in the gentling of a Mustangs soul... and he taught me about the same things in myself. Crow and I know you are never far away my friend.
—Deborah Samuel
Robin, Dusty and Backup / Photo Deborah Samuel
We have all been blessed during the years we have known Robin. His mild mannered kindness and gentle interactions with us and with the animals he has known continues to bless us. His memory will remain vivid and strong and I will always cherish who he was and is.
—Diane Nelson
Robin and Oshoto / Photo Piar Marks
I greatly admired him for all his endeavors.
—Jim Sloan
Painting Jim Sloan
We don’t talk much about our or anyone’s legacy. It seems to be part of an old thought process set aside with Honor, Respect and Courage. Robin left a legacy. Not only his but Buck Brannaman, Ray Hunt, Tom and Bill Dorrance, those who Robin deeply respected and who’s example he followed in his own way. He willingly passed that Legacy, that knowledge on to those students who he felt would listen. Who would understand and honor that long line of experience and knowledge. Robin gave all of us all an opportunity to be part of his Legacy, to learn by his example as he did by those who came before him. For this I am deeply grateful.
Respectfully,
—Jeff Meyer
Photo Laura Ellis
I once asked an old farrier how he managed to trim and shoe horses that nobody else could come near. He just smiled and said, "No drama."
That calm, gentle, quiet attitude was how Robin approached horses. Watching him communicate with horses was pure joy. A little bit of magic left this world with his passing.
—Judy Prisoc
Robin and Oshoto / Photo Piar Marks
Because Wings for Robin and Connie Doughman
And horses, fully winged, emerge from deserts like the frothed front of a storm and begin to sing. Humans appear eons after, move between continents, create societies ungainly enough we neglect to remember what we have done.
Only some hear horse songs. Fewer still thread their fingers through the first—songs that grow thick as desert-salt manes sung in waves of sand and wind as if the earth and its moon are still new and the singing pours through stars while day, whose golden eye dapples their coats with flames, cannot burn.
Robin heard the horse songs and the first sung and the quiet space horses place between. He heard mustangs unfold their wings, heard them soften to his voice when they skidded to a stop, corral dust obscuring their feet, hindquarters tensing the pivot. Eyes night wide, wild and faraway, horse after horse blazed the desert listening in the silence he sang.
—Beth Kaplan Strong
Ruby in Rock Ridge Corral / Photo Rush Cole
Videos
Robin Doughman, Natural Horseman (Tribute)
—By Allen Ellis.
Love Might be a Lasso
—By Raji Drame
Robin and Montego
—By Raji Drame
Robin’s writing
The Spanish Mustang
The History, The Romance
Why Spanish Mustangs?
Robin’s Horses
The Roan Mare
Robin’s Journal Dream of Emmett Brislawn
Cicatriz and her Herd.
Mustangs and Mindfullness
Connecting with Horses
Mustangs and Mindfullness Training Program
Montegos Big Adventure
Becoming a Better Person as You Train Your Horse
Working with Magic